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This purchase started out as a way to use the spare tyres from my MX5 project and escalated into being part of a set (maybe a diorama... ) along with the Aoshima Brian James Trailers A4 Transporter and the mystery side project that won't be getting a WiP. I've split this and the trailer into separate threads because, from conversations I've had on here and reading @Anteater's WiP, there are going to be some 'challenges'. The tyres I modelled for the MX5 are about 32" and so I'm going to need a 2" lift kit to get clearance on the Rangey. As the OOB chassis seems to be the cause of most of the problems, I'm going to model a new one that hopefully fixes the issues and has separate suspension components, so I can offer it as a 'fix kit' with standard or lifted ride height. So I've started this kit by doing the absolutely most important thing... WHEELS! The OOB ones are pretty rudimentary and probably 15in (might be 16in, I can't remember), which won't cut it as the MX5 tyres are for 17in wheels. I was thinking of what would be a sensible aftermarket wheel for an early 70s 4x4 and decided the only way to go is steel 8 spokes. So I knocked one up. Because the original Rangey wheel has a very pronounced centre, I did a bit of research into series 1 hubs. From what I can see, they're the same as Land Rover ones, which makes sense. The 8 spokes are flat at the fastening point, so I modelled front and rear hub 'protrusions' that can be added as appropriate. I also did separate tyre valves, 'cos they're really hard to paint. I left the wheel nuts as part of the main wheel because it makes for a stronger component overall. I had a bit of a revelation when I painted the wheels, because I used a black base instead of white, which is what I generally throw under silver to make it 'brighter'. This is ProScale Paints Z-Tune Silver (I think) and using the black really helps with definition in the finished wheel by making the shadows darker. Makes sense, really. Don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before. Here's a final photo of the new wheels and tyres against one of the OOB items. I will paint the wheel nuts and there will hopefully be all kinds of weathering going on by the end of this build. Thanks for looking! I'd probably give it a couple of months before coming back... although I might put the interior together... I need to do that so I can model the new chassis. It's not going to be a quick one, though. Cheers! Martin

Next build series is two exmaples of the Hasegawa Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 kit; one is the road car and the other is the 1991 Ivory Coast Rally vehicle driven to victory by Kenjiro Shinozuka and John Meadows. The road car kit is Hasegawa number 24001 (CD-1). I don't think this is Hasegawa's first 1/24th scale road car, but appears to be the first in the more modern series. When I say 'modern', the kit is very basic by recent Hasegawa standards. The engine bottom, front and rear diffs / gearboxes, drive shafts and all four prop shafts are molded in one big piece, for example. Plan is a two-tone paint job and simple period correct grey and black interior. The rally kit has the full photo-etch detail set common to Hasegawa rally kits of the time. Of course it also has the modifications for the Ivory Coast Rally, such as front bar and large spotlights. Despite being a Group A car this particular vehicle is right-hand drive; I had actually clipped off the RHD dash and put it back in the box before I read the instructions! Blue on the rear (can't be seen on box art) is paint and the big side decals will be fun around the door handle and side trim. No photos yet but I have made start on both bodies, which are now drying to the point that I am happy to mask for respective second colours. Fairly basic kits so painting the other pieces will not take too long, then just usual detail painting. Updates soon I hope. Grant.

When it comes to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 1991 winning Mazda 787B is quite iconic among racing enthusiasts. It gave Mazda its first overall victory at Le Mans, as well as the first for any Japanese manufacturer, a record that would hold until 2018, when it was practically gifted to Toyota for remaining in WEC. The 787B looked and sounded great, and has since lived on famous video games like Forza and Gran Turismo. The 787B was the culmination of Mazda's Group C / GTP program, which came to an end shortly after the FIA disallowed the rotary engine. Before the 787B, Mazda enjoyed some success with the 757 / 767 cars, building experience and reliability at Le Mans. During the 1988 race, the 757 would win the GTP class ahead of the 2 767s. The 767 would be upgrade for 1989, known as the 767B, being made faster and lighter. 2 767Bs and a 767 were entered for the 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans, the only 3 entries in the GTP class. All 3 would finish, with the class winning #201 767B placing 7th overall. A 767B would again be entered for the 1990 Le Mans, alongside 2 new 787s with their more powerful R26B engines. The 767B would end up being more reliable however, winning the GTP class again in 1990. For a plastic Mazda 767, Hasegawa is the only game in town. This kit has been around in several boxings since 1990, and has been rated to be quite good. My copy was a Christmas gift, though not the version of the class winning entry. This version is the more colorful livery, with the Charge sponsorship on the 2nd place #202, looking much like the eventual 787B. The plastic was produced in orange and black, to help with painting. Because I'll be building the #201, which wore a white and blue livery instead, I'll be spending plenty of time to make sure my primers are able to cover up all the orange. For decals, I've ordered a set from Indycals, who offers decals for many sportscars. Great thing about Indycals, they offer what they call "Oops Protection". If the decals become damaged within 1 year of purchased, simply take a picture to show them, and they'll send you a replacement. Their decals are the sole reason I'm doing the #201, as I have horrible luck with Hasegawa decals, and replacing those will allow me to finally build this kit.

After finishing the Metro 6R4 in this GB and having so much fun and interest from you all, I think I just have time to squeeze in another Group B icon in this version of the all conquering Quattro, I've chosen this kit out of my stash as its all one colour and no engine detail, so hopefully it will be finished in the 2 months remaining 😀 My main passion for builds are group B and F1, so this GB is right up my street 😀

I bought this kit second hand during the first covid lockdown - as we have come to expect it was less than a month later that Tamiya announced they were re-releasing it for (fortunately not much) less than I paid and with additional photoetch. So this one is being built without the additional detail of a brand new kit, and the added disadvantage of 25 years old decals. The kit was virtually unstarted... I say virtually as two wheels have been removed from the sprue but that was it. Don't expect rapid progress with this one, I'm getting the traditional summer paint on now, but there are a couple of other builds to finish before I start gluing it in earnest. First job though was to get some gluing done - the lower part of the front end is a separate piece to the main body, and as far as I can tell the only thing I need to glue inside the two pieces down the line is the mesh that makes up the grille (although there doesn't seem to be any mesh in the box so I will have to take some left over from another kit). With the lower part glued solid, it was time to get some filler into the gap as this is a single piece of fibre glass on the real thing as far as I can tell. So with the gap solid, filled and sanded I had the body looking something like this. After that, it was a case of scribing out the panel gaps with a 0.4mm scriber, then on with a coat of Halfords Grey primer on the body and all the large bits which will end up satin black. Surprisingly I seem to have a done a good job at sanding down the mould lines as there aren't any immediately visible. Even more surprisingly, there are no sink marks on these parts other than a couple on the floorpan - I won't fill those as they won't really show when complete and you don't expect perfect floors anyway. It does look as though there is a very slight imperfection where I've filled the join between the two body parts, and the scriber has slipped on the roof so I will need to fill that, but overall for a first guide coat this is looking quite promising. I think the join just wants a light sand to get it fully smooth (I might have got away with it with a heavier coat as I think there's an element of the slightly rought texture of the filler coming into play here), while a very light skim and sand should sort out the roof. And that's it for my first post on this one, don't be surprised if it takes me a year to finish it though!

Presenting my entry to this group build: This is the recently re-issued kit from Tamiya that comes with a Motocompo folding scooter and middle aged man pretending to be a student. The sprue for the scooter isn't very well thought out and would involve seams and way too much masking for my liking (the car already requires a load for black trim), so I got the resin version from ZoomOn that is much more logically thought out. Also, I have the Aoshima Honda City Turbo II kit, so will use the spare Motocompo for that, when the time comes. The sprue shots... The car kit is quite basic, possibly originating from a motorised version looking at the rear axle area, and it has no hub or brake components at either end. 🤔 Now to the plan...! Obviously, I'm going to lower it and swap the wheels! I feel like this car need slamming on the floor with some aggressive camber and fat wheels/stretched tyres... BUT! Because this is the 80s, and that sort of nonsense doesn't exist yet, I'm going to refrain (and save that for the Turbo II ) and give it tasteful 35mm lowering springs with -1º of camber and a set of 1 inch wider, 15 inch (1in larger diameter) Work Equip 40s that were available at the time. In the process of creating the lowering/camber system, I'm planning to model the missing hubs and brakes and get rid of the metal axle and screws that hold the front wheels in favour of the current Tamiya wheel fastening system. Finally the colour scheme... and this is entirely inspired by @Toftdale's builds of a few months back. Specifically some shots of the paint in progress where the car looks pink. I thought the colour suited it so well, I'm going to paint this one, and the Motocompo, in Porsche Frozen Berry over pink primer from ProScale Paints. As you can see, the pink primer really 'pinks' it up a bit Anyway, that's it for now. I need to go and finish my Trabant for the 'Give Peace a Chance' GB. Thanks for looking! Martin

I'll put this here as a place marker for when I start, I'm starting another car in the Give peace a chance GB next week, so once I've started to get to grips with that one I'll be doing bits of this in between hopefully According to Scalemates the original new tool and boxing of the kit was in 1978 with number 722, however mine's a later boxing from a few years ago, but nothing apart from boxing looks to have changed I've used the pic from Scalemates site as my phone camera doesn't want to play with Flikr at the minute for some reason 🤔 I think it'll probably be alright tomorrow, but here's my starter for 10 so to speak I've heard it's a bit of a challenging kit in places, but hopefully it'll be a breeze compared the the Mini Art 1/35th lorry I've just finished Ian

Here's my second GB entry is this tiny (especially in 1/24th) Fiat/Giannini with a KMP transkit... I've already started but hopefully not crossed the 25% mark... The work so far has been to fit the even wider arches from the transkit (I had to sand down those on the shell a little first), add in the firewall, attach the 2 engine halves and gearbox halves together, glue the inner wheel parts to the outer rim tube and attach the new hub parts to the kit parts with the polycaps inside. Body inner and outer parts have had an initial primer coat but could do with another to hide the contrast in the green 3D printed resin colours and I need to add some filler around those arches. Oh and the rollcage has had a first primer coat too. Here are the rest of the transkit parts - thankfully they've included spares for lots of parts (wheel pins, the fragile looking engine/boot lid supports, etc. The transkit is a bunch of 3D printed parts, decals and a rather limited instruction pamphlet (double sided) and paint/decal diagram. Here's an image of the car with the arches on, pre-primer... Here's the rest of the Tamiya kit pieces... And the Tamiya instructions... This is an older boxing of the kit, it looks like Tamiya have re-released it (hence the yellowed plastic). Here's a link to a YouTube video of the cars in action:

With the 206 build hitting a problem with the decals I decided I'd try crack on with something else. All the parts seem to come neatly inside one big plastic bag, containing sub-bags... Instructions are usual modern Revell affair, lots of decal choices, 66, 67, 68, or 69... I maybe nearly 50 but I'm still childish so you can probably guess which variant I'll do! Interestingly the body is formed of 2 parts, luckily that does make painting easier (the rear part is red, the front section white and blue, though has a couple of small red bits to mask and paint. Also the windows come with pre-painted surrounds (I'm not sure I've ever seen that before) and there are some clear red parts for the tail lights. The lower shell is a fairly flat single piece for the underbody aero - the vertical strakes on the rear diffuser look a bit out of scale. Overall the kit seems nicely moulded (not much if any flash) though the detail does look rather soft. I decided to cut out the air intakes on the front, though I didn't do the neatest of jobs. I also drilled out the side exit exhausts ports. After a days work I had separated and build whatever sub-assemblies I could to aid painting and mounted lots of parts on temporary sprue handles to aid airbrushing. The wheels and tyres look pretty similar but there are separate front and rears (I think the rears are marginally wider) so the wheels I marked with sharpie and added some masking tape over the marks so I can later see which are which if I remove them from the sprue. Ready for primer. The instructions call for lots of mixes of black, grey and silver for the internal parts in various ratios. For now I'm going to prime the shell in white and everything else in black/dark grey (will just add the black to the airbrush without flushing it fully).

Morning folk's.although I've been here since 2013 it's not often I find myself here in WIP,I tend to lurk mainly in the GB section's for the most part.This kit for all it's faults has been on my to do list for years as I really have to consider the Hurricane as my favourite aircraft and that summer of 1940 as Churchill put it "our finest hour".I was born only twenty years after the event but with Dad having fought and Mam living through that War it was never far from conversation and as a kid Airfix models and war films were my bread and butter and set me off over the year's being fascinated by the Battle of Britain.So not a quick build for which I'm noted but as a Christmas present from my youngest it's time to make a start on her.

Finished this one a little while back. Solid kit for the price. As a small departure from how I normally build car models, this one does feature some slight weathering.

Alternatively titled: I came. I grew. I grew some more! Looking around my stash seeking inspiration as the recent Toyota Cafe Menu wip drew to a close, I realised I had the opportunity to chart the evolution of the Mini. In model form of course. So this thread will be the building of Hasegawa's Mini Cooper Sports-Pack (1998), Fujimi's Mini Cooper JCW and Hasegawa's Mini Cooper S Countryman ALL4. Unfortunately I do not have any of Tamiya's models of the original / real Mini. I did build the Monte Carlo Rally model when I was a teenager, but that is long gone. I am not prepared to pay the going rates for these nowadays and I am hoping Tamiya's recent re-aquisition of the BMW licence might see some reissues! The boxes.... In my mind I picture the original Mini like a late teenager. Super energetic, lithe, agile, willing to take on any challenge. Athletic. My model is one of the many recent Hasegawa variants; in this case the Mini Cooper Sports-Pack. The first BMW generation Mini is my protagonist now into their mid-twenties. Still plays sport on the weekend when possible but starting their 'adulting', with career on the go and the need for a bit of.... sensible. This is Fujimi's Mini Cooper S with John Cooper Works Kit. Finally, the Mini Countryman ALL4. Our hero has hit full middle-age spread! Career, life partner, babies, fur babies, trips to the flat-pack furniture fecundity. But if you glance sideways in the mirror, you might just catch a glimpse of what once was... Ah, the nostalgia! This is a Hasegawa kit again, in "Ray Package" spec. I have no idea what the Ray Package was in real life, or if it even existed. In model form it appears to mean some decal stripes in two colour options and different mag wheels. I have clear thoughts on the first two models, while my initial thoughts on the Countryman were slightly confused by the recollection tonight of the decals in this particular variant. Not sure if I will use them or not, or how best to incorporate them if I do. The variation wheels I will definitely use.

Okay, onto another one! This is going to be part of a set (maybe a diorama... ) along with the Italeri series 1 Range Rover and the mystery side project that won't be getting a WiP. There seem to be a few little details on this box photo that aren't part of the kit. Mainly the winch line and 'hook' and the central winch line locator on the front edge of the trailer base. Looking at the Brian James website, this trailer doesn't come with the winch or the wheel rack thing at the front as standard, so I might just exclude them. The first thing to note is that the box is quite empty (I've already cut some bits from the sprues, but they are all in the box). The next thing to note is that I do not like those wheels! Especially as the spare doesn't match. Also, because this is being paired with a series 1 Range Rover that will be rolling on steel 8 spokes, I feel like steels on the trailer is more appropriate. So I knocked up a quick steel wheel (and forgot to do the tyre valve, but I don't think it will matter). I actually went with my JDM standard 5 x 114.3mm stud spacing and I think I should have gone 5 x 108mm. This would have given me a smaller mounting area and would have looked more like the OOB spare. I might re-do them, but I'm not sure... I'm also planning on using the OOB tyres at the moment. The original wheel... My steel wheel Here are a couple of shots of the OOB spare for reference. As the back is what you'll really see, I don't think the differences with my wheel will matter. And, finally, here's a comparison between OOB and my steelies. The next step is fitting the main trailer frame together before painting and this is going to require some thinking. All the bits are separate, so it'll be really easy for it to get a wonk on. I think I need to make a jig. Anyway, thanks for looking! I'm hoping this will be a nice little 'over Christmas' project... let's find out! Martin

Good day everyone. following the Pagani Zonda I built a while ago I also picked up an Aoshima Pagani Huayra at my local hobby store shortly after and finally managed to finish it. The Huayra is the successor to the Zonda and it also is one of my favorite cars ever made, with the same attention to details as Horacio Pagani's first creation. The kit unfortunately is not as good as the Zonda. The details are great, the proportions are great - Aoshima really nailed the very complex shape of the Huayra! The fitment is where it all goes wrong. The Zonda kit is very precise, this one is quite vague in some areas. It was fun to build the separate components like the engine or the front suspension but fitting it all to the floor and some of the bodywork felt like a chore and only thanks to walkthrough builds of other fellow modelers, bigger mistakes were avoided. Still, I had to glue the gullwing doors in place and cut the hinges to make the upper panel fit. That was quite disappointing because the beautiful cockpit disappears for the most part. All the trouble aside - I'm quite pleased with the end result, apart from one green smudge on the front splitter I only noticed on the photos and now I can't unsee it The Huayra was mostly painted with Tamiya cans - Light Grey Primer, Candy Lime Green to replicate Lamborghini's iconic Verde Ithaca and Gloss Black "carbon" parts. The smaller parts were done with brush, Vallejo und Revell acrylics. P.S. I know I forgot to dust it off! Thanks for watching!

With the weather being so good last weekend I figured it was time to try to get some paint on plastic. Unfortunately I didn't quite get that far, but here's what did happen. The next kit due for painting is the Simil'R Ford Focus WRC kit from a little over a decade ago. Unfortunately they only had a brief time in business so the kit is hard to find. And I can't afford to mess things up as spares will be almost impossible to find. Good timing in a way with one having just been posted in the RFI section a week or so ago so that gives me some added inspiration. The reason I wanted this kit is that it's the nearest I know of to my current (fun) car: Unfortunately, with prices being £70+ even if you can find one I'd pretty much given up on getting one. Then in the midst of the first Covid lockdown, I found one for just under £40 on Amazon from a seller who had it listed as an alternative seller to one listed in German amd showing as out of stock. Obviously an omen and everything in the universe telling me to buy it - what else was I to do? Generally it looks pretty detailed, although if I can build it without one of the suspension springs flying off into either my eye or the jaws of the carpet monster it will be a miracle. But I will give it a go. This is the plastic which comes with the kit (maybe I should have taken it out of the bags before the photos). In addition, you also get the aforementioned springs and some photoetch for added detail and testing of patience: First thing to do was to try to get something ready to paint, and this is where I failed miserably. I figured the chassis was probably a good place to start. Turned out not to be the case as there was this bit where the ejector pin looks to have sliced though the plastic - I think this needs firming up a bit to ensure we don't have a weak point here. So out with the dissolved sprue and I have the hole filled in. I'll leave it for at least this week to firm up before sanding back to shape, but at least this should prove stronger than filler. There was also a bit of a pin mark on the other side, but that took much less filling. Now a question for anyone who has built this (and I accept there probably aren't many). There are these two bits circled in red which I'm unsure of. My first thought was they were additional sprue channels to avoid a short shot, but on closer inspection they appear quite well moulded and have a definite pin / nipple on them as if they are meant to fit in something. But they don't seem to be shown on the instructions - does anyone know if they are meant to be there or should they be removed? And that little bit is all for this one for now. Thanks for looking, and any advice on the circled bits.

Hello all, Having just finished the last update today over on this thread of two years research and design work on 1/24 and 1/32 versions of the Westland Wasp helicopter: - I'm starting this new thread here to outline the 3d printing and contruction of the kit at 1/24th scale. The project includes options for both torpedo (Mk.44/46 versions, Mk.44 shown here): - and AS.12 missile version: With working blade folds on both: This thread wil be quiet for a bit whilst I put the next series of parts on to print, but eventually we should end up with something approximating this as a physical entity: Until the next instalment: Tony

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if I should be posting this topic here or in the Cold War section, so please indulge me a little if you feel I have posted it im the wrong place. I am looking for decals in 1/72, 1/32 and 1/24 for early Indian Air Force roundels, notably, the 'chakra' symbol of a blue spinning wheel on a white circle as seen in the centre of the Indian tricolour. Does anyone know of any decals out there that fit th bill? Cheers, and thank you all very much for any help and for taking the time to read this thread, Viv

Just finished today! Profil24's wonderful 1/24 kit of the 2023 Le Mans-winning Ferrari 499P: The kit is to Profil24's usual awesome standard (I'm not sponsored by them but maybe should be ) Resin was intricate and needed a lot of cleanup (my favourite part I think), and once done really showed why resin is the perfect medium for this kind of intricate bodywork: Then the finished model: It's got a LOT of carbon fibre decalling too: some supplied in the kit, others using Hobby Design sheets: The kit is pretty much OOB aside from cockpit wiring (which you can't see!) and I also removed the two 'walls' which Profil24 cast aft of the rear wheels (presumably for strength reasons). You should be able to see the tyres when viewed from the back and I wanted the 'see-through' look that many WEC cars have. Paint is one point to discuss. The 2023 and 2024 cars were quite an orangey red; the colour has changed for 2025 to a more dark red. The views below don't really show the difference due to lighting but I think they at least show how the colour schemes have changed: Paint is by Number 5 (via SpotModel) and is similar to Zero Paints. It's thus far the only paint available for the 2023 and 2024 Ferrari 499P (499P LMS Red, N5-C192). It goes on very well but in my opinion it's more like the 2025 shade. Having seen the cars first-hand in both years I'd say it's a tad too dark. Anyway there it is.

I've just finished building this in the 'Give Peace a Chance' group build, so I thought I'd chuck an RFI up. The backstory for this is a young guy who got out of East Berlin in 1989 with his girlfriend, a suitcase and his Trabant. They spent the winter in Southern Europe and, in the spring of 1990, made their way up to Belgium, where they settled. Over the years, life happened, but he never got rid of the Trabant. Eventually, he started making budget modifications and here we are! Here are a couple of interior shots and one of the boot assembly Thanks for looking! Martin

Like many of you - I assume - on this forum I am a regular Gran Turismo player; starting right back at the original on the first generation PlayStation. Aside from the gameplay it offered such a rich deepdive into the wonders of JDM vehicles that everytime I loaded the disc I wondered what new delights would be revealed!! In the most recent version there is a feature called 'Cafe Menu', where players are set the task to complete a set of vehicles based on a theme. I thought it would be an interesting - to me at least - idea to complete a modelling 'Cafe Menu'. In this work in progress thread I will complete a Toyota Cafe Menu, building a front engine / front drive (FF), front engine / rear drvie (FR), midships engine / rear drive (MR), four-wheel drive (4WD) and race car. I have thought to follow a similar path to what a gamer may do in the real game, as they progress through Sunday Cup, Amateur Cup, Lightweight Cup, Clubman Cup etc. So there are vehicles that might represent a cheap first car from the Used Car selection, first high performance and tuneable vehicle, and so on. Might end in something of a halo car.... I hope this may be of interest to some of you. Cheers, Grant. I am starting with the FF Toyota Starlet EP71 Turbo-S from Hasegawa. This is definitely one of the JDM nuggets I was completely unaware of before Gran Turismo. Often available as a cheap first vehicle in the game in used car guise. This is one of the (many!) Hasegawa variants of the 3rd Generation Starlet. For the step up to FR, I have gone with the venerable Toyota Supra 3.0 GT. This vehicle was often found relatively cheap as a used car in Gran Turismo, and then of course could be tuned to ridiculous (unrealistic?) levels. This is a Fujimi kit I have had in the stash for many years, rather than the no doubt far superior Tamiya or Hasegawa offerings.

Well, I said I wasn't going to start a WiP yet, but then I've had some paint mixed, so... here we are... Introducing the 1/24 Scale Tamiya Testarossa I've talked about this project in the 'Spotted...' and 'Recent kits...' threads and so now I'll consolidate it into a WiP. So here's how it started... In the ludicrous Ronal Teddy discussion of a few weeks ago, the concept of a Ferrari Testarossa on Teddy drag wheels was born. My first thoughts were of 80s Pro Street cars and specifically the (actually 1990) B&M neon pink Camaro. This is the only photo of the car, at the time, I can find IN. THE. WORLD. If I hadn't sold all my old copies of Street Machine I could have got one from the article. This is my inspiration! The plan is to build a Pro Street Testarossa as it might have been built in the early 90s, if it had been sponsored in part by Ronal: the TEDDYROSSA! (Thanks to @Neddy for the name) I'm thinking supercharger on the flat 12 popping out of the engine cover with a scoop over the roofline, narrowed rear suspension (difficult with the engine in the way) with massive, treaded tyres (drag radials?) and narrow-ish fronts wrapped around a set of Teddies. I might leave the side vents open, a la Willy Koenig, and possibly have smooth, smoked front and rear grilles/light panels... We'll see... As I'm modelling some Teddies for the Ferrari 348tb, I've already started on the centre lock drag versions... And, finally... I emailed ProScale to ask if they could make a suitable pink for me - they offer a custom service at no extra cost. My requirement was for a pearl paint that was as close to the original solid colour as possible. Realising that, being a metallic pearl, it wasn't going to be as 'flouro' as the original. Paul at ProScale really came through with this beauty... It looks red in the photo but, having seen a video of the paint in motion, it looks like the highlights will be bright pink and transition to a red/pink in the shadows, which I think will look amazing! Once the paint arrives, I'll do some spoon tests on white and pink primer. After the spoon tests, this project will probably lie dormant for a while, whilst I clear some of the mounting WiPs I already have! Thanks for looking and, if everything I've written upsets you Martin

I figured this old kit would fit in with this build and give me a chance to get it out of the stash. Time to see what I can do with it.

This is one of those daft ideas that's been festering in the back of my mind since 1991, when I saw that Ronal had released a set of wheels that look like teddies. Obviously, at 14 inch with a 4x100 stud pattern, they were intended for little hatchbacks and the like, but I thought "if I was a millionaire, I'd get a set of these made for a Ferrari 348!". Well, I'm not a millionaire, so it's never happened... Until NOW!* Last weekend, you may have been unfortunate enough to stumble into the Spot of the day Evo IX thread and been spammed by much talk of said wheels. This reignited the idea and escalated into two possible builds, this being the cheaper and simpler of the two. Teddy image courtesy of Euroalloy Although these wheels are available in 1/24, they're 14 inch and I want 17 inch so I'll model some new ones. I'll still use the 14 inch centre and step up the diameter with the rim. For now, here are some sprue shots. Considering the low parts count, it actually looks quite detailed and even has some PE! The other thing I'm going to do is give it some lows and camber. Because Teddies! Thanks for looking! Sorry if it upsets you Martin *in 1/24 scale

Some photos of my completed model of the Hasegawa Nissan Skyline R31 GTS-R Group A (kit #21127 / HC-27), built out-of-the-box in the iconic Calsonic livery of the Japanese Touring Car Championship. This model was the clear winner of my Aoshima / Fujimi / Hasegawa Nissan Skyine Group A comparison thread here. I do not think that was ever in doubt given the relative age of the kits, but this model from Hasegawa was an absolute delight to build and looks amazing on the shelf. One of the stand-out models in my collection for sure. The level of detail is amazing and the engineering means painting and construction is simple. Given the basic R31 body is used by Hasegawa in a number of models items like bumpers and rear spoiler had to be added, and I went against the instructions to add as much as possible prior to painting to ensure consistent colour. Paint is Tamiya's TS-44 and the decals were great to work with, responding well to some decal softener and radiant heat. I cannot recommend this kit highly enough. I will be adding a road version of the R31 from Hasegawa to the collection in the future. Grant. A group shot of the three models built as part of the comparison. Front-to-back is Aoshima DR 30 / Fujimi R31 / Hasegawa R31. Finally, the Hasegawa R31 GTS-R Group A with some of it's younger Calsonic Skyline siblings from Tamiya. What's that I here you ask? "Where is THE iconic Calsonic R32 GT-R?" Well, recall that Tamiya, Hasegawa and Fujimi all have R32 GT-R kits in their catalogue. Watch this space....

Let me entertain you with my other build, which took some 6 months to complete - I give you the Autobus parisien by Heller! Few words on the kit itself. It's quite big, as you can imagine, with a ready model 40 cm long and 10 cm wide. What's more impressive, some parts of it go in one piece - it's not every day that you detach a detail of whopping 40 cm length from the sprue. That comes at a cost - numerous push marks are everywhere. Heller engineers did their best to cover it up, but at certain areas it really spoils the visual with chickenpox, especially on the passenger compartment roof, that initially got a nice wooden texture. Some marks even go to the clear parts of the driver cabin, making it really unacceptable. Well, challenge accepted, so it turned out to be my most heavily modified model so far. Balsa ceiling, pneumatic brakes, wooden handrails, workable driver doors, windshield wipers, cornucopia of nuts, bolts, and rivets everywhere to mention a few. The kit is rich in years and it feels, with door handles and wipers made as a bumps on clear plastic and the manual giving you advices to fix the end of the bar with hot knife. Another issue - unlike the Citroen HY this kit decals are much more disappointing, mismatched sizes and overall pretty dull. So I took an opportunity to replace each and every, moreover adding some floral pattern to the walls. So there's little to nothing from what it meant to be out of the box. But don't get intimidated, this kit is a perfect canvas to paint your dream model on! The scale allows you to modify and upgrade without stretching your skills to the max. It's really very friendly in terms of assembly, since the whole passenger compartment is assembled as a separate capsule to be mounted on the chassis at the finishing stage. I especially enjoyed the ingenious solution of the roof - it's double in fact, first you attach the inner roof of passenger area and then you cover it with an outer roof, that closes the whole length of a model. That really simplifies the matters, Heller engineers did their best to assist. The model was painted with Alclad II enamels and Vallejo acrylics, all airbrush. Details highlighted with oil-based markers and Quinta studio rivets really saved me a lot of effort. Now, with all the modifications I can go on and on with recollections, but what speaks better of itself than the photos? Here they come and I do hope you will find it interesting. Cheers! Some images before the thing was completely covered: And a tiny bonus, brief history of Paris buses in 20th century: